Analysis

Henry Darger's Landlord Saved His Art. But Who Owns It?

By Ivan Moreno

The fate of the extraordinary body of artwork Henry Darger created over decades living alone in a rented Chicago room may depend in part on the meaning of a few words attributed to him shortly before he died in 1973 — a question now scheduled for a federal jury trial in March.

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Raoul Remains Illinois' Attorney General

By Lauraann Wood

Illinois voters allowed Attorney General Kwame Raoul to remain the state's top legal officer on Tuesday, reelecting the Democrat to serve his third term in the post.

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OppFi Pulls $130M BNC Bank Bid, Citing Review Uncertainty

By Jon Hill

Online lender Opportunity Financial said Tuesday it was withdrawing its applications for a planned $130 million purchase of BNC National Bank, calling off its bid to become a bank amid what it described as unclear regulatory standards and other obstacles to approval.

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John Deere Can't Escape Ex-Workers' Severance Fight

By Kellie Mejdrich

Former John Deere workers alleging the company manipulated performance ratings to reduce severance payouts advanced their proposed class action to discovery, convincing an Illinois federal judge that the alleged conduct sufficiently stated a claim for violating federal benefits law.

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Ill. Panel Upholds Felony Conviction Gun Ban

By Parker Quinlan

An Illinois state appeals court has found that a handgun recovered by police during a traffic stop could be used to convict a man for unlawful possession of a firearm by someone with a prior felony conviction, and that the state law invoked to convict him on the gun charge did not violate his constitutional rights.

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Ohio Voters Lead Data Center Pushback In Ballot Questions

By Nate Beck

Voters on ballot questions across the country Tuesday broadly opposed building new data center projects, with Ohio voters enacting roadblocks to projects pitched by Amazon, Meta and others, in an electoral test for the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

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Dems Interrogate McDonald's CEO On AI-Driven Pricing

By Hailey Konnath

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Becca Balint and other Democrats sent a letter to McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski, pressing him on the company's use of artificial intelligence-driven pricing recommendations and how it assesses potential harm to consumers and competition.

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AI Co. Suno Seeks Toss Of Musicians' Claims It Copies Styles

By Ben Adlin

Artificial intelligence music service Suno Inc. urged a Massachusetts federal judge to throw out a proposed class action accusing the company of copying musicians' identifying attributes, arguing that U.S. copyright law does not protect a musician's artistic style.

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Mass. Judge Nixes Feds' Bid To Stay Grant Termination Ruling

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration's request to stay her judgment that it cannot terminate already-awarded federal grants based solely on the president's current priorities, and chided the government for intentionally slow-walking the case.

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Indiana Targeted Unionized Teachers' Speech, 7th Circ. Says

By Katherine Smith

The Seventh Circuit upheld a federal judge's decision to block two Indiana state laws changing how teachers authorize unions to receive a portion of their wages, finding that the laws violated the First Amendment by specifically targeting teachers who wanted to join a union and pay dues.

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10 Ways AI Labs Can Limit Antitrust Risks Of Safety Pacts

The OpenAI CEO’s recent call for artificial intelligence laboratories to collectively slow development to allow safety research to catch up invites antitrust scrutiny, but the risks to coordinating competitors can be managed by carefully structuring pacing agreements and layering their approach to compliance, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

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Former DOJ Officials See Mixed Results In Midterm Races

By Chris Villani

The 2026 midterm elections included bids for office by several former U.S. Department of Justice officials and nominees for the federal bench, with one race a dead heat and several others decided as of early Wednesday.

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Gibson Dunn Set To Bring On 120 Lawyers From Weil

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson and Marialuisa Taddia

Gibson Dunn is set to hire the U.S. and London-based private funds teams from Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, bringing on 120 attorneys in the largest group move reported since Weil's management committee recommended last week that the firm wind down operations.

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Analysis

Attys Ensure Voters' 'Right To Be Heard' In Midterm Elections

By James Boyle and Lynn LaRowe

From BigLaw attorneys and solo practitioners to university professors, thousands of attorney volunteers turned out for Tuesday's midterm elections to ensure American voters' ballots would be counted.

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Analysis

Midterm Dem Wins To Scramble Lit Funding Legislative Efforts

By Ryan Boysen

Litigation funders can rest easy, for now, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will need to rethink its approach after last night's midterm elections saw Democrats rout Republicans, scrambling a yearslong effort for federal regulation of litigation finance that's so far relied on Republicans.

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State AG Race Wins Set To Give Dems Control Of Most Offices

By Madison Arnold

Democrats are poised to oversee a majority of state attorneys general offices around the country after Tuesday's elections saw the party hang on to all of its existing seats and flip control of five offices from the Republicans, according to unofficial election results.

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Vedder Will Move NYC Staff To New Manhattan Office

By Isaac Monterose

Vedder's New York City staff will move to a new downtown Manhattan office sometime in 2027 after the law firm signed a 49,000-square-foot lease in a 2.6-million-square-foot office tower, according to landlord Rockefeller Group.

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Ogletree Adds Ex-Amazon Employment Atty To Seattle Office

By Rachel Riley

A leading in-house employment attorney for Amazon has departed to join Ogletree Deakins' Seattle office, bringing expertise helping Fortune 50 companies navigate workforce challenges to the firm.

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DOJ Says Epshteyn Will Answer ABA Service Motion

By Jared Foretek

Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn will answer for himself why he has allegedly been evading subpoenas in the American Bar Association's legal challenge to the administration's law firm targeting campaign, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

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DOJ Accused Of Unlawfully Ending Crime Victim Agreement

By Tom Lotshaw

The National Crime Victim Law Institute has accused the U.S. Department of Justice in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims of unlawfully terminating a $500,000 cooperative agreement aimed at strengthening legal support for disabled crime victims in the wake of an executive order against diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

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Holland & Hart Cost Ex-Client $23M Stake In Co., Suit Says

By Zach Dupont

Holland & Hart LLP and two of its attorneys were accused of malpractice in Colorado state court Tuesday by a former client who claims the attorneys failed to inform her that a wealth transfer plan with her then-husband left her iced out of the couple's most valuable asset.

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Goldstein Ordered To Pay Trimmed $1M Forfeiture

By Nadia Dreid

Former SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein was hit with a $1 million forfeiture order Wednesday by a Maryland federal judge in the wake of his tax and mortgage fraud trial, where the appellate advocate was convicted on a dozen charges.

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